Save your sense of taste

AMONG our five special of touch, vision, taste, smell and hearing taste unsurprisingly, is extra-special to most of us for obvious reasons. And why not? Craving for food is attributed more to the taste of it than to hunger. What’s more, while we gorge on our favourite foodstuffs, if we’re getting healthier, then, that’s somthing to chew on, isn’t it? One of the editions of the Journal of American Medical Association published delicious research reports last year, that chocolate is not as wicked as it is made out to be! In fact, it contains flavonoids that lower blood pressure and risk of heart disease, ward off cancer and more. That’s definitely food for thought! Read on to know more about your taste buds and how you can preserve your sense of flavour and tang.

Get acquainted with taste buds:

On the top surface of the tongue are found numerous minute projections(somecone-shaped, fine-pointed, some others round, reddish, mushroom shaped) called papillae, which give the tongue a velvet-like appearance. Taste buds are small ovoid or barrel-shaped organs found within the outer surface of these papillae. These taste buds are made of inner cells and outer supporting cells arranged like the stsves of a barrel, which surround a smmal opening, the taste pore that leads into a narrow space. Each taste bud has 10-12 receptors of taste stimuli called neuroepithilial cells or taste cells carrying hair-like processes aiding in taste sensation.

Taste buds are distributed randomly over the surface of the tongue. Primary taste sensations are perceived in different regions of the tongue and palate; sweet at the tip,salty at the sides of the tongu, bitter and sour at the back of the tongue and the palate

How to save sense of taste:

*Scrape your tongue. First, gentel scraping/brushing will help remove bacterial colonies and open up the taste buds. Second, it may change the composittion of saliva so that more food dissolves and flavours are more intense.

*Avoid smoking, chewing beetle nut, supari, zarda and the like. They positively diminish perception of taste besides being hazardous to health.

*Taste somthing new every day. Also try to be more aware of what you put in your mouth. Try new things, new cuisines; test different recipes. Concentrate on textures and subtleties you haven’t noticed before.

The author is dental surgeon and can be contacted at ALL SMILES DENTAL CLINIC, 26673439, 9845085230.